LITURGICAL FIDGIT: Why We Need Isaac Watts (and others like him)

Hymn Tour participants at Watts Park, Southampton

As the church flounders about in the “liturgical fidget” (term borrowed from CS Lewis's Letters to Malcom Chiefly on Prayer), Isaac Watts can give us both the theological and liturgical ballast Christian worship so desperately needs (what I here argue for Isaac Watts can be said about many of the luminaries of Church history and hymnody). And he can give us an emotional rudder, a means of steering the passions in worship by objective propositional truth feelingly delivered. Without such a rudder, worship is shipwrecked on the shoals of cheap-trick emotionalism generated in much the same way it is at a concert or a football game. Tragically, in place of singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs in worship to Jesus Christ (Col. 1:16–17), raw feelings of having done so may be supplanting the real thing.

Watts was around nearly three hundred years before Little Richard said, “The blues had an illegitimate baby and we named it rock ‘n’ roll.”[i] But he understood important things about how human beings are wired, things Little Richard and his offspring understand, but which are suppressed or ignored by many in the church today. Watts understood that “our passions are intensely directed toward material things but are hardly moved by the most important discoveries of faith.” He was warring against the stale lifeless singing in worship in his youth, and he rightly wanted to see emotion and passion, as we do, in sung worship. He knew that passions “are glorious and noble instruments of the spiritual life when under good conduct.”

MISCHIEVOUS ENERGIES

But here is where Watts is a counter voice to many well-meaning worship leaders today; he knew that passions “are ungovernable and mischievous energies when they go astray.”[ii] He grasped—and so must we—that it is the business of church leaders both “to assist the devout emotions” and “to guard against the abuse of them.” Centuries before the invention of the electric bass, Watts warned church leaders: “Let him not begin with their emotions. He must not artfully manipulate” their passions and feelings until he has first “set these doctrines before the eye of their understanding and reasoning faculties. The emotions are neither the guides to truth nor the judges of it.” He argued that since “light comes before heat . . . Christians are best prepared for the useful and pious exercise of their emotions in the spiritual life who have laid the foundations in an ordered knowledge of the things of God.”[iii]

FIRST LIGHT THEN HEAT

In the very best of Watts’ hymns, he combines both emotion and knowledge. But for Watts, it is always light first, then heat. The feeling of wonder, the emotion of profound gratitude, the escalating thrill of adoration and praise always follow the objective propositional exploration of the doctrines of the gospel. For Watts, the doxological always followed the theological. And the foundation of ordered knowledge of the things of God that must precede true doxology is essential for all Christians, men and women, rich and poor, in all times and in all places, those with PhDs or GEDs, men from every tribe, kindred, people, and language. We know this not because Watts said so. Watts discovered it from divine revelation. Hebrew poetry in the Bible can be deeply passionate, even erotic, and the Psalms are rich with thrilling emotion, but it is always light first, then heat. Surely this is what the apostle Paul was getting at when he wrote, “I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also” (1 Cor. 14:15b).

FEAST OF DEVOTION

The best way to discover this, however, is not by reading Watts’ prose arguments. Read and sing his hymns. A generation of Christians that returns to Watts’ feast of devotion spread before us in his hymns will find celebratory nourishment for both mind and spirit. Watts’ grasp of doctrinal truth about Christ and the atonement will become our grasp. His determination to take every thought captive to Christ will become our determination. His love for children and the poor will become our love. His passion for the lost will become our passion. His thrill at the forgiveness of sins will become our thrill. His praise will become our praise. His awe will become our awe. His wonder at Christ’s saving love for sinners will become our wonder.

All who long for Christ, for being like Him, for adoring Him, for serving Him, for sharing His grace with the world, will find in Watts a treasure trove of experiential doctrine, richly adorning biblical truth that leads to the most thrilling passion for Christ.

CHEAT OF DEVOTION

What about a Christian culture that abandons Watts? We should expect to continue to be cheated by raw emotion masquerading as spiritual light. I for one do not want for an instant to be thrilled with emotion, to become a junkie of my feelings, to be enslaved to raw passion—and tell myself it’s Christ with which I’m thrilled. I don’t want a cheat. I want Christ. I want to examine from every angle the wondrous cross on which my Savior willingly gave up His perfect life for my miserable, unworthy one. I want to see His head, His hands, His feet, the blood and water of His sorrow and love flow mingling down, washing me clean from my guilt and corruption. I want to survey with wonder a love so amazing and so divine. Then, and only then, I want to be carried away, dazzled beyond words, with Jesus my atoning sacrifice, my gracious Substitute, my perfect righteousness.

SURVEY THE WONDER

By the gracious gifting of Jesus, Watts was given a gift of timeless poetic wonder. It was a unique genius. We cannot have it; it was Watts’ gift. But it was a gift given for the edification of the church until we reach that “land of pure delight.” By it, every generation of God’s children can take Watts’ words as their own. By his poetic devotion, every Christian can share in his wonder at Christ and the glories of the world to come.

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God:
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to his blood.

See, from his head, his hands, his feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down:
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

Douglas Bond is author of twenty-six books of historical fiction, practical theology, and biography, including The Poetic Wonder of Isaac Watts (Reformation Trust, 2014) from which this blog post is adapted, and the Mr. Pipes Series on hymnody for children and young adults. In addition to speaking at conferences and leading Church history tours, Bond is also lyricist of New Reformation Hymns and the Rise & Worship album (2017); books and cds are available at bondbooks.net, and you are invited to follow his podcast The Scriptorium at blogtalkradio.com/thescriptorium. 

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[i] Jack Newfield, Who Really Invented Rock ‘n’ Roll? (New York, The Sun, September 21, 2004), on-line: http://www.nysun.com/arts/who-really-invented-rock-n-roll/2037/

[ii] Jeffery, English Spirituality in the Age of Wesley, 82.

[iii] Ibid.

Pagans, Politicians, Postmoderns, and LUTHER (NRH 10)

Cover adapted from statue in Eisleben

Lord Jesus, You're More Excellent (NRH 10)

"We need Poets!" cried Luther, Reformer and hymn writer. Sola Scriptura Luther believed that God spoke to his people in his Word and that in worship we replied back to him with our singing of hymns. Hence, the church needed able poets who could skillfully compose those vernacular hymns. The Reformation was first and last a recovery of the gospel of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, and Luther was a vanguard of that great rediscovery. He also understood that when the church stops singing its theology it will very soon stop believing it. It wasn't just Luther. The power of music in transmitting knowledge, philosophy, and theology was understood even by the pagan ancients.

"I would teach children music, physics and philosophy; but most importantly music, for the patterns in music and all the arts are the keys to learning." Plato wrote this in the Golden Age of Greece; his student Aristotle would go on the write Poetics, and therein lay the foundation for the poetry of Western Civilization. Pagans though they both were, and deeply flawed in significant areas, they understood the power of music and of poetry. Combine both pagans with the Apostle Paul, celebrating the singing of Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, with gratitude, and in the name of Jesus Christ, and you have Christian hymnody at its best (I'm still striving, not there yet). 

Okay, this may seem like a stretch to all of us who are campaign-weary and fighting with cynicism about our politicians, but even dubious politicians seem to agree about the power of music, "Simply put, music can heal people." ( Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.). We have to forgive Reid his exageration; he is a politician, after all, and also thinks the government can heal us and solve all our problems. Medical doctors, educators, dairy farmers, nurses, caregivers, and moms and dads know that music has a huge effect on all of us (even on cows). And academia has jumped on board too. You can earn a graduate degree in musical therapy, wherein you learn of the amazing power of music to help people recover from surgery, and cope with the effects of cancer, PTSD, and Alzheimer.

This is Reformation Day so I want to return to Luther and then introduce the next New Reformation Hymn (NRH 10). "Music is the art of the prophets," wrote Luther. "It is the only other art which, like theology, can calm the agitations of the soul and put the devil to flight."

Lord Jesus, You're More Excellent (NRH 10) (Long Meter, LM, 8.8.8.8.)

I began notes for this hymn during a sermon I was listening to at church. The preacher's text was in Hebrews. And my mind began ransacking the book, these texts being prominent in the phraseology of the hymn.
--Hebrews 1:3-4 “After making purification for sins, [Jesus] sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.”
--Hebrews 8:6 “Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.”
 
Lord Jesus, you’re more excellent
Than Moses’ ancient covenant:
God's Law you perfectly obeyed
And on the cross its curse you paid.

My Royal Priest is excellent
Above the dying priests who went
In yearly terror through the veil—
But Jesus once for all prevailed.

Lord Jesus, you’re more excellent
Than all the guardian angels sent
To guide our steps both day and night,
Since Jesus guards with sovereign might.

Great Savior, you’re more excellent
Than all the Devil’s arrows spent
In furious rage against the ones
For whom Christ died to make his sons.

Kind Jesus, you’re more excellent
Than doubts and troubles I invent;
Your life laid down, my victory won—
My Advocate, God’s holy Son.

O Christ, you are most excellent,
By th’new and better covenant:
Redeeming Love who took my part,
Inscribed your Law upon my heart.

O Righteous One, most excellent,
Your cross fulfilled the covenant;
O Worthy One, who took my place,
I long to see you face to face.

Douglas Bond, Copyright, March 28, 2011

Watch for the forthcoming NEW REFORMATION HYMNS album with my hymn lyrics, Greg Wilbur's musical compositions, Nathan Clarke George, and others. Coming (Dv) early 2017

Song to Synergism, what a hymn would sound like if Jesus only paid most of it...

Man and God cooperating in creation

I’ve long thought that one of the significant problems with synergistic theology is that it doesn’t sing very well. “Jesus paid it all,” would have to sound something like, “Jesus paid most of it; most of it to him I owe,” which of course is far worse than just bad poetry.

What I’ve observed is that whatever their declared theology, when hymn writers set their quill to paper to write a hymn of praise to God they feel constrained to extol the free mercy of God in Christ. But I have long wondered what a hymn would sound like written by someone who believes that God and man are in a responsible partnership in salvation. So I attempted to project myself into the theology of synergism (which is actually so much easier than any of us really wants to admit) and out came this:


I praise and worship Father thee
Since I have chosen free
To bow before your majesty
By my own liberty.
    O God of fairness, with my voice,
I praise you for my choice!

The Father leaves us, every man,
To choose him if we can;
My will he never violates
While passively he waits.
    O God of fairness, with my voice,
I praise you for my choice!

The Son who did his best for all
Leaves me alone to call;
Along with all the human race,
I’m left to choose my place.
    O God of fairness, with my voice,
I praise you for my choice!

The Spirit draws—but not too much;
My will he’ll never touch,
But leaves me free to choose my faith,
The captain of my fate.
    O God of fairness, with my voice,
I praise you for my choice!

It would not make a bit of sense
To earn my recompense,
If I don’t have ability,
My free will and my liberty.  
O God of fairness, with my voice,
I praise you for my choice!

With apology, by Douglas Bond, January 29, 2012

INTERVIEW podcast on HYMNS FOR ALL TIME TOUR of England & Wales

RR PODCAST 7: DOUGLAS BOND ON REFORMATION TOURS

RAISING READERS

THE PODCAST

Plenty of Americans dream of taking a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Europe…to see the Eiffel Tower, hear the chiming of Big Ben, and float along the romantic canals of Venice.  But for many devoted Christians, the idea of a Reformation Tour never crosses their minds.  Today, Douglas Bond tells us about the Reformation Tours he leads across Europe, giving us a glimpse into how they bring Reformation history alive for families–and provide an even richer once-in-a-lifetime vacation.

For our readers, Douglas has kindly provided a $200 discount for adults who’d like to join his Hymn Tour through England and Wales next August (2012).  You can talk to him about family discounts as well, if that would work better.  To get the discount, you must preregister by November 8 of this year.  Just contact him douglas@bondbooks.net or see his webpage and mention you heard about the tours on Redeemedreader.com.

THE GIVEAWAY

Of course, not all of us will be able to join Douglas on his tours.  Thankfully, he has poured a lot of his passion and knowledge for Reformation history into his books for kids!  We actually have four of his Mr. Pipes books which bring to life the history of church hymns, and we’d like to give them away to some of our readers.  Here’s how it works:  Leave us a comment telling us where you’d like to visit on a Reformation tour.  Gutenberg’s printing press?  Isaac Watts’s home?  The door on the Castle Church in Wittenberg?  We’ll choose four of you to receive Douglas Bonds’ Mr. Pipes books this Friday.

So, I hope you’ll enjoy getting to know Mr. Bond better in this podcast and through his books.  I can’t think of anyone better to introduce children to the rich spiritual heritage of the Reformation.

For more history-rich posts, see our Podcast with Douglas Bond on his Mr. Pipes series,  our interview with amazing illustrator and author Cheryl Harness, or a review of books on the Scottish Covenanters, including Mr. Bond’s.

COMMENTS

P.S.  We’re working on getting the audio to play smoothly.  For now, if you’ll just click on Download in the player below, you can listen to it on your computer or other device.  Thanks for your patience!  EW

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Toplady biography finished--read a sample

INTRODUCTION

What are we to make of a man described as “strangely compounded, peculiarly constituted, and oddly framed”? It conjures up in the mind an image of Stevenson’s Mr. Hyde, or Shelley’s Frankenstein, or Hugo’s Quasimodo. But such is J. C. Ryle’s (1816-1900) description of Augustus Montague Toplady (1740-1778), author of what has been called the best-loved English hymn. One wonders why someone would bother writing a biography—or reading one—about a strange, peculiar, odd person. Nevertheless, Ryle declared that no account of Christianity in England in the eighteenth century would be complete without featuring remarkable Toplady.

Not one of his contemporaries surpassed him, and hardly any equaled him. He was a man of rare grace and gifts, and one who left his mark very deeply on his own generation. For soundness in the faith, singleness of eye, and devotedness of life, he deserves to be ranked with Whitefield, or Grimshaw, or Romaine.

Ryle ranks Toplady among exalted company indeed. But he had so much less time to achieve worthiness of that ranking. Consider that Whitfield outlived Toplady by nearly twenty years, Grimshaw by about the same, and Romaine lived over forty years longer—more than twice Toplady’s lifetime. Yet Ryle ranks Toplady on a level with these great Christian leaders, all who lived decades longer than he. In his thirty-eight years of life, Toplady rose to the rank of a foremost scholar, theologian, pastor, and hymn writer.

Not everyone, however, has shared Ryle’s exalted opinion of Toplady. His was a life of sometimes bitter contending for gospel orthodoxy in The Age of Reason. And for this contending he was dismissed by critics as “a wild beast of impatience and lion-like fury," an extreme Calvinist, a copper-bottomed controversialist, and a “chimney sweeper.”

But today we’re far more likely simply to be ignorant of Toplady. People who know something about 18th century Christianity, who might actually recognize his name, may connect his name with a hymn, but more likely he will be remembered as the vitriolic controversialist with John Wesley. Politely pushed to the side; end of story. I find myself in a continual process of learning that the more I think I know about someone, about whom I actually know very little, the more certain and inevitable it is that I will draw distorted conclusions about that person.

The story of Toplady’s life is a prime example of my tendency to draw ultimate conclusions about someone based on very partial information. I suspect I am not alone in this. “There is hardly any man of [Toplady’s] caliber,” laments Ryle, “of whom so little is known.” [He was, however,] most loved where he was most known.” He further laments that what is known and remembered about Toplady, by those who bother to do so, are primarily his frailties.

MODERN REFORMATION article in March/April 2010-hot-off-the-press

THE DEVIL HATES GOOSE QUILLS

And Why it Matters to the Church, by Douglas Bond

POST-POETRY CULTURE

Martin Luther, who said “The Devil hates goose quills,” insisted that in a reformation, “We need poets.” Most of us scratch our heads and wonder what on earth we need them for.

Our postmodern, post-Christian, post-Biblical culture has almost totally dismissed what used to be called poetry. Few deny it; ours is a post-poetry culture. But who cares? 

“Poetry is a marginal art form,” wrote poet Campbell McGrath, “in a culture that values neither literacy nor artistic expression in any vital way. America does not persecute poets, it does not seek to smash them like bugs—it just doesn’t care a lot.”

Martin Luther cared deeply about poetry, in the most vital way. But do most Christians today? Most accept the decline of poetry without a whimper, with barely a wafture of good riddance.  But does it matter?

Paul Johnson, decrying the decline in literacy, argues that students should “produce competent verse in a wide variety of strict meters, under examination conditions.”

To what purpose should they be subjected to such literary tortures? After all, what good is it? Won’t the machinations of society carry on just fine without poetry? Won’t the church do just fine without it? It’s not like poetry contributes anything vital. You can’t eat it.  

So thought Hanoverian King George II. “I hate all boets!” he declared. If you’ve ever been flummoxed at lines you were told were poetry, ones about wheelbarrows and chickens, you may agree with George’s abhorrence of poets.

But are Christians to stand deferentially aside as culture pitches poetry—the highest form—into the lowest circle of hell? 

WHAT HAPPENED TO POETRY? 

I’ve been accused of the pedagogical unpardonable sin of depriving my writing students of what has become poetry’s sole consideration: individual self-expression. “Why don’t you let them write in free verse?” I’m asked. “I do,” I reply. “We just call it brainstorming.”

Arguably vers libre achieved its foothold with Walt Whitman, a man with new ideas simmering in his bosom, new ideas that demanded a new form. “Through me forbidden voices, voices of sexes and lust, voices veiled, and I removed the veil.” The Devil, no doubt, rubs his hands in glee at Whitman’s goose quill.

Whitman-like free verse dictates against any conventional structure of meter or rhyme. This throw-off-the-shackles impulse creates a blurring of literary genre wherein poetic form is abandoned in favor of irregular bursts of feeling. What often remains is fragmented prose. “Poetry” thus conceived provides a pseudo-form for saying private things about one’s self, things one would never utter in direct speech—until Whitman removed the veil.

Such redefining of what poetry is has led to a proliferation of what one classics professor termed, “therapeutic soul-baring by emotional exhibitionist[s].” Or as John Stott quipped, “The trouble with you Americans is you’re constantly engaged in a spiritual strip-tease.” . . .

October, Reformation month, Speaking schedule

October is a busy month! I will be speaking several times on themes related to the life and theological legacy of John Calvin who turned 500 this summer, July 10, 2009. If you are in the Tacoma, Peoria, Illinois, or Gig Harbor, WA neighborhoods on the following dates, join us.

October 16-17, I'll be speaking at The Music Symposium (FPC) on Psalmody and hymnody, including a tutorial on poetry and hymn writing. fpcmusicsymposium09@earthlink.net

October 23-25, I'll be speaking at The Reformation Faire, sponsored by James McDonald and Providence Presbyterian Church, Peoria, Illinois. Psalms and Hymns for the New Reformation, Readying our Sons for the New Reformation, and Calvin's Heroic Offspring. For more information and to see the program for the event go to http://www.providencepeoria.org/Documents/Reformation_Day_Program.pdf

October 30, 2009, Reformation Day eve, I'll be delivering an address open to the public at the Peninsula Room of the Gig Harbor Library. The talk will include a multi-media presentation of images from Noyon, Paris, Geneva, and Strasbourg taken on the John Calvin @ 500 Tour, July, 2009. The first five guest families will receive a complimentary signed copy of my novel on John Calvin, The Betrayal. There will be opportunity for questions, activities for children, and Reformation cookies. www.gigharborreformed.wordpress.com and gigharborreformed@gmail.com for more information.

"How the Psalms Should Shape our Songs," Union University afternoon discussion with students and Douglas Bond